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THE ALLEYNIAN 709
DRAMA & DANCE
At the time of writing, we have just staged our first event for a public audience in the Edward Alleyn Theatre for more than 15 months. It was thrilling and moving and joyous to see different year group bubbles combine to create such memorable theatrical magic, and great to see that the rehearsal room warm-up is alive and well, and rowdy as ever. Deprived of the intimacy of the actor–audience relationship, this has been quite a year for Team Drama, whose relentless invention with new schemes of work and remote interaction has never ceased to amaze. Students across the school, including record numbers taking A level and GCSE, must be applauded for their positivity, endless creativity and patience as we lurched through the hybrid world of live and remote learning. For large parts of the year the exploration of transferable skills from stage to screen was staple fare, with self-taping, webinars, news reporting, audio drama, digital theatre and the honing of production design skills as a focus, while students across all age groups engaged digitally with the performing arts through interactive sites including Opera Works and Drama Online. Script-to-Screen A level plus students and examination groups, as well as those on the Liberal Studies Technical Theatre course, all took advantage of our ongoing series of webinars engaging with industry professionals, including film producer David Parfitt (on the day his film The Father received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations). David gave pupils tips for entering the film industry, as well as answering a range of questions and shedding light on the process of getting a film ‘in the can’. Under the banner of Design Fundamentals, Jerome Reid OA discussed his route into stage lighting as a career, offering highly informative background on the McCandless lighting method and lighting temperatures, and Sophia Pardon discussed her approach to production design, including her specialisms in costume, set and puppetry, as well as talking about the challenges for creatives while the theatres remain dark. Finally, distance dance ensured boys were up and away from screens, inventing their own choreography, inspired by Matthew Bourne, Stomp and Zoo Nation. Despite all the lockdowns and the self-isolation, 2020–21 saw pupils from every year group from DUCKS to Year 13 performing live, or getting involved in ambitious film-making projects. There were some remarkable achievements. Year 7 were involved with the Echo Eternal commemorative arts engagement programme inspired by Holocaust survivors’ testimony, which included a feature in the nationally screened Holocaust Memorial Day Horizons film, and the movement piece Shine was then selected for Trinity Laban’s London Regional UDance 2021. Dulwich has been gifted the testimony of the writer Judith Kerr, and her ever-positive mantra in the face of adversity, ‘what would they have given to live just a month of the life I have had …’, never felt more timely and poignant.
Reconnecting with the unique atmosphere of live theatre is a tonic, says Kathryn Norton- Smith , as she looks back at one of the most challenging and inventive years ever for the Drama, Theatre and Dance Department BACK ON THE BOARDS
Deprived of the intimacy of the actor–audience relationship, this has been quite a year for Team Drama
Collaboration between the creative and the performing arts came to the fore through a joint workshop with the Art Department at the Judith Kerr primary school, Herne Hill, and the Music Department for the recording and staging of Weep No More , in candlelight, in the Great Hall. As a fitting coda to a culture-starved year, in December we witnessed fearless performance work from the largest ever cohort of Upper School pupils performing in House competitions, as well as the creation and staging of ambitious new devised work and scripted adaptations from nearly 100 GCSE and A-level pupils. Senior pupils honed skills in the power of the spoken word and playing to camera through broadcast filmed contributions in response to Black History Month and International Women’s Day, and we look forward to their further participation in theatrical workshops on the theme of ‘Walk with Us’ in response to the work of the Aegis Trust during Refugee Week in June. We will stage an open-air promenade production of Shakespearean vignettes with Year 9, and a large ensemble scratch production for Year 8, based on themes from Our Day Out . Meanwhile, a quarter of the school, from DUCKS to Year 13 (280 pupils), have continued to engage with the co-curricular LAMDA programme, working towards Acting grades and Acting medals as well as awards for public speaking, and thanks to our close links with our OA alumni network, we even managed to stage a live production of the Spies Like Us adaptation of Woyzeck in the EAT. So, here’s to 2021–22, to the removal of the socially distanced setting line, and to the continuing engagement of so many Alleynians with all things creative and dramatic.
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